Osterville author explores Boston Christmas traditions

Friday

Nov 24, 2017 at 12:04 PMNov 24, 2017 at 12:04 PM

By Ellen C. Chahey

Heaven has sent you just the thing if you’re looking for a Christmas gift for someone who loves Boston. Anthony Sammarco, an author and historian with homes in Boston and in Osterville, will be at the Osterville library to talk about and sign copies of his latest book, “Christmas Traditions in Boston,” at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25.

The author of about 70 histories, including one about the Osterville Village Library, Sammarco said this book was the result of a question from a publisher: “What would you like to do?” His good memories of Christmas in the Hub produced this result.

Sammarco, who has written about the Baker’s Chocolate factory, the Howard Johnson’s franchise, and the Jordan Marsh department store, among so many other Boston-related memories, now offers a story that takes readers from the time that Christmas was banned in Boston (which actually happened in the 17th century) through the Victorian era and thence to the wonderlands of department store marketing and religious displays on Boston Common in the mid-twentieth century.

“I tried to write about the different meanings of Christmas,” said Sammarco. For the Puritans, he said, Christmas was a pagan celebration to be banned because of their interpretation of the Christian religion, and then the holiday became, through German immigration, a way to market cards, toys, trees, and so many other sales opportunities, especially through children.

But it can’t be all about sales. What are Sammarco’s own favorite Chistmas traditions?

“Well, with Christmas, I always think of food,” said the author, who dedicated the book in part to the Feast of the Seven Fishes (“La Fiesta dei Sette Pesci”), a meatless Italian Christmas Eve tradition that he has experienced through family. He has dedicated the book also to Bonifazio and Angela Cocuzzo Cedrone and Luigi and Rose Giannelli Sammarco.

And he also loves the middle-European tradition of the tree, beautifully illustrated on the back cover of the book in a photograph in which he hangs an ornament on his Christmas tree.

Sammarco has taught history at the Boston University Metropolitan College and the Urban College of Boston and he has won many awards for his teaching. He has also been honored by many historical societies in Boston and was named Dorchester town historian by former mayor of Boston Raymond L. Flynn.

Sammarco’s book reproduces a remarkable collection of cards and photographs, many from long before he was born. “When I was a child,” he recalled, “we received hundreds of cards. I love the one of Old Mr. Boston,” he said of one card that celebrates a particular brand of holiday cheer that is recorded on page 34. As the caption says, the liquor stars “in an advertisement with their Imported Rum, Apricot Nectar, Blackberry-flavored Brandy and their famous Rock & Rye, all of which were to sooth [sic] the throats of carolers if it was an especially cold Christmas Eve!”

There was a time when, according to publicity for the Osterville event, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony banned the celebration of Christmas as “a time of seasonal excess with no Biblical authority.” But by l856, the day became a state holiday.

So who is to know what to make of this day?

Sammarco’s book takes us from the time in 1659 when “whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way…shall pay for every such offense five shillings…” until the time when there were live animals and crèches on Boston Common and in the nearby department stores. Sammarco loves the photo of the Sermon on the Mount shrine across from the Paulist Center.

If you’re wanting to give something lovely to a friend with Boston memories, you might want to consider “Christmas Traditions in Boston.”

The person might have a memory similar to this one that’s recorded in the book:

“’We frequently went on the trolley to view the Christmas lights and to visit Santa at Jordan’s and R.H. White’s…In the forties, no matter what the age, you always dressed for town…we wore our best hats and gloves and still had to be warm…We would visit the crèche on the common and see all the lights.”

Later in Boston’s history, about 1965, came the Prudential Center, and according to Sammarco’s book, “it was said that 30,000 Christmas lights were strung on trees at the Prudential Center in Boston’s Back Bay…”with lights that would “draw enough electrical power to light about 750 average size homes, per hour. During the whole Christmas season the lights will draw 28 million watts of electricity, enough for some 30,000 average size homes.”

As Sammarco himself asks, ”What could have been better than after a day seeing Santa, the seasonal displays and lights on Boston Common than to enjoy a hot fudge sundae at Bailey’s?” (This sugary, gooey treat was famous for dripping over its edges with chocolate and marshmallow.)

If you can answer “nothing better” or know someone who can, Sammarco will be happy to meet you in Osterville on the 25th of November at 1 p.m. in the library. Maybe you can swap some stories.

Copies of the book are $23 in cash or check. The library is located at 43 Wianno Ave. in Osterville, telephone 508-428-5757 and website www.ostervillevillagelibrary.org. “Christmas Traditions in Boston” is published by America Through Time, whose website is www.throughtime.com